Day 3 Recap:
Brad Miller, tied with Patrick McCormick going to the final hole of the 96th Maryland Open championship, promptly converted a two-putt birdie at the 540-yard test to edge McCormick by a stroke. The challenger forged a tie when he birdied the 17th hole, causing Miller to fall out of the lead for the first time.
Miller, a mini-tour professional from Timonium who was third in last year’s Open, finished with a par-matching 72 and a 54-hole total of 208, while McCormick, an amateur who plays from Baltimore Country Club, made a charge with four back-nine birdies and ended with 68-209. Amateur Lee Detmer, from Chevy Chase, finished third with 68-210.
Miller, who had opened 68-68, led Chuck Thatcher (65-75) by four, McCormick (71-70) by five and Detmer (68-74) by six going into the last round. When Miller went to the turn in 2-over 37, it brought the others into contention. Thatcher slipped back to finish 75-215, and Detmer closed birdie-birdie to tighten the race.
As it turned out, Miller was able to hang on by birdieing all three of the back-nine par-5’s, reaching each green in two shots. McCormick was three back at the turn and two back after a Miller bogey at 10. Both birdied the 11th, and McCormick drew within one with a birdie at the 14th. Both birdied the 16th and McCormick got the tie at the 17th, only to have Miller untie it.
“I’ve been playing very well,” Miller said, “and the key this time was patience. [After being tied], I hit two good shots to reach the green, putted up and was left with a two-foot putt for birdie.” McCormick’s birdie bid slid by the hole and he had a short putt for his par.
The two 27-year-olds are good friends and have played a lot of golf together. As a result, “I didn’t expect Brad to come back [to the field] like that, but he didn’t miss many shots,” McCormick said.
Jan Miller, the MSGA official in charge of the tournament, had the pleasure of presenting his son with the winner’s trophy. “We’ve been waiting for a breakout round. . .a breakout tournament, so hopefully this is it,” he said. “Still, [given his current status], it’s hard to find places to play. He’ll probably be going back out again next month.”
The 2018 Maryland Open will be played at Fountain Head CC in Hagerstown.
Champion Brad Miller pictured with his father and MSGA Vice-President from Baltimore CC, Jan Miller.
Low Amateur and runner-up Patrick McCormick
Day 2 Recap:
The first-day leaderboard took a beating during the second round of the 96th Maryland Open at Woodholme Country Club in Pikesville, July 11. Of the top eight scorers, only Brad Miller, a mini-tour irregular from Timonium,
survived. As a result, Miller, 27, with a second straight 4-under-par 68, opened a four-stroke bulge on the field. The round featured a record-setting nine birdies.
Although first-round leader Chuck Thatcher was one of the casualties (75), his 36-hole total of 140 left him the closest to Miller. Four others were bunched at 141-142 and all seven made the cut, although former runner-up Rick
Schuller, from Stonehenge G&CC, needed the highest cut since 2011 (41 players at 150) to squeeze in after going 69-81.
Miller made all but a couple of his birdies from inside 15 feet and two of them were two-putts on par-5 holes. However, with some good there was some not-so-good, such as three bogeys and a four-putt double-bogey at the third. In his previous five Open starts dating back to 2011, Miller had a best of tie-third (208) last year. All his finishes were top 15, with three of them top-10.
Thatcher was still on his birdie-binge (which included a record-tying eight in the Open’s first round) when he went birdie-birdie on the first two holes, but it was a roller-coaster from there. He finished with three bogeys on the front, then had a “triple” on the par-5 11th, before getting home with two birdies and a bogey. The last birdie came at the 18th to end the mess on a high note.
Miller shared the low round of the warm, sunny day with Chris Bushey (150) and Billy Peel (143), who were trailed by a half-dozen who improved their status with 2-under 70’s. One of the latter was Patrick McCormick, the 2014 champion from Baltimore CC, who finished 71-70–141 to claim sole possession of third place. His tour included six birdies (five on the back, his starting nine) and four bogeys.
The eight-birdie record was set in 1990 by Bob Boyd, the Woodmont CC head professional at the time, during a second-round 62 at Bretton Woods Recreation Center. He finished with a 64 and a 54-hole total of 197, still a record.
Notes — Five former champions were in the starting field, with McCormick, Sean Bosdosh, and Billy Wingerd making the cut. Failing to advance were David Hutsell and Wayne DeFrancesco. . .Bosdosh and George Graefe are the only champions to have won as an amateur and as a pro. . .Often a challenger, Ricky Touma, head professional at the Burning Tree Club, made this his 31st Open start. His best finishes were as part of a three-way playoff in 1997 and a tie for second in 1988.
Day 1 Recap:
It turns out Chuck Thatcher didn’t use all the birdies in his system when he was part of a record-smashing round nearly two weeks ago.
The Beaver Creek Country Club amateur recorded eight birdies and one bogey in a round of 31-34–65 to take a three-stroke lead after the opening round of the 96th Maryland Open, setting a Woodholme Country Club course record in the process. The Pikesville layout, in superb condition as usual, was played at 7.132 yards to a par of 35-37–72.
The previous course standard was 66, set by Denny McCarthy in qualifying for the 2012 U.S. Amateur, as he posted 71-66–137 to win the medal by four shots.
Thatcher’s earlier heroics came with partner Jim Kyttle in a Middle Atlantic Mid-Am/Senior Four-Ball at River Bend CC. They made eight birdies in the first nine holes and finished at 10-under-par 29-32–61, a tournament record. Thatcher ended with six birdies, Kyttle, five.
Starting at No. 10 at Woodholme, Thatcher holed a 20-foot breaking putt for birdie at the 13th, then added two more before the turn when he reached two of the par-5’s in two and 2-putted. On the front, he birdied Nos. 2-3-4 from inside 12 feet, bogeyed the fifth when he missed the green, then got it back at the seventh where he just touched a downhill four-foot putt and the ball fell into the cup.
Not quite through, he came out of a bunker to 20 feet and nailed the putt to save par at the eighth, and finished with a five-footer he coaxed home at the last. “The big swing, however,” he said, “was at the 473-yard 15th [with a water hazard beyond the drive zone]. I hit my teeball left, laid up with a 9-iron, wedged to four feet and made the par putt [to hold the round together].”
When Thatcher signed his scorecard, it knocked four players off the top spot — pros Brad Miller, Ryan Cole, and Jimmy Flippen, Jr., and amateur Lee Detmer — all at 68. Pro Rick Schuller and amateur Morgan Egloff followed at 69, trailed by Ryan Richardson, 70.
Miller, from Timonium, and between tours, had six birdies and two 3-putts; Cole, a recent James Madison University graduate, highlighted his round with an eagle-2 at the 333-yard eighth, where he holed a shot from a greenside bunker, while Flippen, head pro at Ringgold (Va.) Golf Club, had six birds in shooting the back in 31, then spoiled a par side with a double-bogey at the ninth. Detmer, a rising junior at Wake Forest University, hit 15 greens and had six birdies.
“I love this course,” Flippen said. “I played in my first section event here and I’m very comfortable with it.” Of his round, he pointed out he made putts from two to 30 feet and despite his finish, declared that too many good things had happened to be disappointed about it.
Schuller, runner-up to McCarthy in the 2013 Open, 200 to 201 [the latter was a score that would have won every Open for the previous 22 years], dipped 3 under par on the front, then matched it on the back, while Egloff, reigning Young Amateurs champion, had six birdies. Richardson hit 16 greens and had four birdies, but also had two 3-putts.
A field of 124 will play the second round, July 11, with the low 40 and ties advancing to the final round, July 12.
Reported by John Stewart